Emily Dickinson Lexicon

JACK, n. [zeku, in Ethiopic, is the pronoun he or she.]

1. A nickname or diminutive of John, used as a general term of contempt for any saucy or paltry fellow. – Johnson.
2. The name of an instrument that supplies the place of a boy; an instrument to pull off boots. – Watts.
3. An engine to turn a spit; as, a kitchen jack; a smoke jack.
4. A young pike. – Mortimer.
5. A coat of mail. [Sp. xaco, xaqueta.] – Hayward.
6. A pitcher of waxed leather. – Dryden.
7. A small bowl thrown out for a mark to the bowlers.
8. Part of a musical instrument called a virginal. – Bacon.
9. The male of certain animals, as of the ass. [Arm. ozach, a husband.] – Arbuthnot.
10. A horse or wooden frame on which wood or timber is sawed. – Ainsworth.
11. In sea-language, a flag, ensign or colors, displayed from a staff on the end of a bow-sprit. – Mar. Dict.
12. In Yorkshire, half a pint. Grose. A quarter of a pint. – Pegge. Jack at all trades, a person who can turn his hand to any kind of business. Jack by the hedge, a plant of the genus Erysimum, that grows under hedges. – Fam. of Plants. Jack in a box, a plant of the genus Hernandia. #2. A large wooden male screw, turning in a female one. – Mar. Dict. Jack with a lantern, an ignis fatuus, a meteor that appears in low moist lands. Jack of the clock-house, a little man that strikes the quarters in a clock.